Aston Villa's most celebrated villains, Juan Pablo Angel and David Ginola, became heroes last night by inspiring the club to victory in the Intertoto Cup final and a place in Europe.
Many have questioned the manager John Gregory's wisdom in paying a club record £9.5m for Angel but the Colombian striker has at last started to repay the investment. As for Ginola, hardly a day seems to go by without him having a spat with Gregory but he had the last word when he crowned a fine performance with a trademark individual goal.
Ginola wrapped up the victory with a run from the halfway line that took him clear of the defence before firing home.
Paul Merson's goal in the drawn first leg in Switzerland meant a goalless draw would be sufficient to return Villa to mainstream European competition after a season's absence.
Merson's reward was a place on the substitutes' bench but the inclusion of Ginola in the starting line-up suggested the Villa manager wanted to put the game out of reach of the Swiss rather than rely on his team keeping a clean sheet.
Either that or Gregory was attempted to kiss and make up with Ginola and avoid a possible court room grilling from the Frenchman's advocate Cherie Booth.
Gregory's game plan was quite clear as his side mounted attack after attack. Angel was in the thick of the action and caused Swiss goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuehler an anxious moment when he forced him to drop a cross from Steve Stone. Fortunately for the visitors no Villa player was on hand to tuck the ball into the untenanted goal and Alexandre Quennox was well positioned to clear.
The more the half progressed the more the visitors threatened on the counterattack, their increased confidence coinciding with the domination of record signing Argentine striker Christian Gimenez. At £1.3m the former Boca Juniors player is expensive by Swiss standards but that did not prevent him from giving Villa's costly defenders the runaround.
Gimenez switched wings after 30 minutes and the change resulted in the Swiss going in front. The Argentine brushed Villa's centre-back Alpay aside before pulling the ball back for the Australian winger to sidefoot the ball past the helpless Peter Schmeichel.
At the other end the England Under-21 striker Darius Vassell served notice of things to come when he escaped the attentions of Murat Yakin before firing just wide.
And with seconds to go before the interval the same player levelled the tie following some inevitable trickery by Ginola. The Dutchman George Boateng began the move and Ginola flicked the ball on for Vassell to volley home.
Vassell almost turned provider within seconds of the restart when he delivered a cross from the left that Angel headed on to the roof of the net.
Nine minutes later the same player was the toast of Villa Park when he put Villa in front from a difficult angle following more fine approach work from Ginola.
With their advantage restored Villa went all out to leave no margin for error by scoring another while the Swiss posed a threat on the counterattack.
Angel, though, added his second 18 minutes from time to book Villa's place in Friday's Uefa Cup draw.
Ginola wrapped up the victory with a run from the halfway line that took him clear of the defence before firing home.
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Schmeichel; Delaney, Alpay, Barry, Staunton; Stone, Boateng, Hendrie, Ginola; Angel, Vassell.
Basle (4-4-2): Zuberbuehler; Quennox, Kreuzer, M Yakin, Crauero; Varela, H Yakin, Huggell, Chipperfield; Kaumantarakis, Gimenez. Referee: C Bo Larsen.